A SETTLER'S GROWL.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2522, 5 February 1877, Page 3

A SETTLER'S GROWL.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.) Sib,—l see through the press that our County Councillors are running each other's salary up pretty high for a poor misgoverned place like the Thames. You may travel south from Otago through the north island until you arrive in the defunct province of Auckland, or the oldest settled portion of the islands. In all the other late provinces you will find communication carried on by macadamized roads, aye, and.also railroads ; but between the Thames and Waikato, or Tauranga, you find no'road of any kind to connect targe centres of population. A traveller would fyunk.that this old province was mis--srn|naged by some other power or gWsrning,body. I think, sir, our prejs»nt Government ought to put us here on the same footing as elsewhere, at least they, ought to give us a macadamized road j from the - Thames-to those out-districts ; also settle the County, and allow the settlers 2s 6d an acre for draining the swmps, • instead of coming down upon a few isolated settlers with a direct land tax, through a few Councillors' that seem-to go in like .the horse leech, crying out, give, give raise each-man's salary by . aipjnhg . heavily - into the pockets of his'jih4jaitrio,u»~ neighbours, men .who -• are,,, thj^ ■jbone, and- sinew of, the land. ]?4n{t. of'all, we (the public) have to pay ao. tax on .the borrowed 24 Million Loan j 2nd, our Councillors (God forgive them for distressing the poor) go >t heavy * for a direct tax, which, most of ii.'willr be swallowed up in paying those , gentd. "The* tell'us that we (the settlers) ' will reqeive from thfe Government a bonus of 4Os for every one pound they raise; they do riot tell us where the Government get tfiese two pounds; they, the Government, take it out of the peoples' pockets. It is just an appeal to the lower passions of the people to quietly rob them of all they.can, directly through, our Councillors, and. indirectly through our paternal Government. Oh;! ye 50 acre farm section men at Ohineinuri, that have another, or 4th -tax to- pay already of one shilling an acre, will ye lie down to all these taxes.; but now I come to the sth, or Mr Mitchell's white elephant tax; he and his mates actually had the hardihood to relieve, "a strong company of a private burden and place it on your shoulder's." Well, if ye .stand all this ye 'are not to be' pitied. Your taskmasters mean .to - -try ,your patience and endurance; and while we are slaving on fern hills and swamps, you will find your masters sporting themselves about both by steamer and horse; your burdens are heavier than those Pharaoh placed on the Jews until they groaned uftder them;.and co will we, if, as a body, we do not come forward and protest against the iniquitous tax imposed on us ■ by a few men we'call Councillors. I, as an elector and a citizen of this County, protest being taxed until we are put in the same position an the other portions of the Colony, more especially do I protest against that pet scheme the white elephant, the Big Pump. I would advise, the miners of Ohinemuri County to make the,. same claim as the Company, of the Ifig iPump^Jbas; they have equally as good/a bright to be treated the same as their neighbours;—l am, &c, ..." .*. * i Elictob". Thames, Jan. 29,1877.